我のみや思ひおこせむあぢきなく
人は行方も知らぬものゆゑ
人は行方も知らぬものゆゑ
- Roma-ji
-
Ware nomi ya omoi okosemu ajikinaku hito wa yukue mo shiranu mono yue
- English Translation
-
Am I the only
one to send my thoughts to you?
How pointless it is,
when you do not even know
where it is that I have gone
- Meaning
- Am I the only one sending my thoughts toward you? How pointless, when you do not even know where I am.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 240
The poet laments that she alone sends her heart toward the beloved, while he does not even know where she is. The single word "ajikinaku" (how pointless) carries the futility of a love that flows only one way.
The first line, "ware nomi ya" (am I alone), limits with "nomi" and poses a question with "ya."
The second line, "omoi okosemu," adds the attributive conjectural "mu" to "omoi okosu" (to send one's thoughts from afar), closing the kakari-musubi begun by "ya" with a break after the second line.
The third line, "ajikinaku" (how pointless), expresses the emptiness of one-sided longing.
The fourth line, "hito wa yukue mo," singles out the beloved with "wa," setting him against the "ware" of the first line.
The final line, "shiranu mono yue," ends with the concessive "mono yue": though he does not even know.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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